Can You Apply to More Than 20 Schools w/ the Common App?

<p>She's not my friend and I don't know this girl at all, so it's not my place to judge her decisions or try and convince her otherwise. I have information that a stranger could use, why wouldn't I share it? I don't know the circumstances behind her choosing 20+ schools, and neither do you.</p>

<p>For those of you that think there is nothing wrong in applying to 20 schools and the aren't hurting anyone---did you ever stop to think about the kid who may not get in b/c you took their spot and then had no intention of going. Why do you think acceptance rates are so low and yields are too..because y too many kids, apply to too many schools! Get to know the school and get them to get to know you...then the process won't be so strange that you have to depend on luck</p>

<p>what possible reason would a person have for doing that...no one has given a really valid reason yet for the need to apply to 20 or 27 schools</p>

<p>so not worth arguing about</p>

<p>do whatever, who cares if it feeds the frenzy and a kid can't make decisions</p>

<p>flyboy, the incoming class for schools doesn't change much year-to-year. If too many people turn them down, they have the waitlist. The same number of kids are entering each individual school every year, regardless of how many schools some people apply to.</p>

<p>And what about the kid who didn't make the wait list? Even if they did, have you looked at the statistics of the # of students getting off wait lists into schools? It's less than 3%.</p>

<p>If a kid didn't make the waitlist, he's not getting in regardless of whether or not people choose to apply to 20+ schools.</p>

<p>Point being..the waitlist kids aren't getting in either. But if it makes people feel better about themselves to apply to 20 schools, they should do it. I just hope that if they are that insecure they handle the rejection if that comes their way as well.</p>

<p>citygirlsmom- ok, first of all, i finished every single one of my apps before hearing back from my early school, and when organized, i did not find the work to be overwhelming. second of all, i did, indeed, research every single one of my schools thoroughly as well as sought help from both my dean and other professionals in choosing. i was not completely decided on a major (leaning towards international relations/political science, which ALL of the schools i'd be applying to had), the sizes were all similar (with the exception of a few larger safeties), locations all over the place (wasn't my largest deciding factor). i can honestly say that i would have attended every one of those schools, though i admit i would be happier to go to some than others. and for your information, by the time i decided for sure to apply ed to penn, it was november 1st and all but like two of my other apps were already finished. most of the other schools had a lot in common with penn, but penn was by far my favorite. i stand by my point of view that it is no one's place to tell someone how to deal with the college process...to each his or her own. my way ended up working for me, and had i been deferred or rejected by penn, i still would be extremely happy with how i handled everything.</p>

<p>also, as for the stealing someone's spot stuff, that's bs. that IS why waitlists are there. yes, few people get in off of them, but that same number of people would have been accepted had anyone who didn't want to go not applied. think about it...</p>

<p>I applied to nineteen colleges. I researched every single one of them and looked into all of the aspects of them that citygirlsmom mentioned.
To be fair, I did have a year to do it in. I decided to take a year off before college, work, and figure out what kind of college I wanted to go too. </p>

<p>I'm amazed that anyone thinks that it's hard to find twenty schools you love. According to Wikipedia (I know, not the most reliable of sources but I don't have the time/inclination to look into it further) there are close to 2,500 colleges in the United States. Do you seriously believe that, out of all of those, someone couldn't find a mere twenty they were interested in?</p>

<p>Now, as to <em>why</em> I applied to twenty schools... The first reason would be financial, whereas my parents are paying my application fees (thank goodness) they will not be paying for any of my tuition at college. Therefore, I applied to a few schools because they offered fantastic merit aid and in other ways matched my criteria. This included all three Arizona state schools. Secondly, I have strong interests in both Theater and Photography, I am undecided as to which I wish to pursue professionally, so I applied to BFA programs in both subjects. Thirdly, I am quite interested in a liberal arts education however, as we all know, acceptance can be quite random at the more selective colleges.</p>

<p>No, I didn't apply to twenty colleges because I am insecure and afraid of not getting accepted anywhere. I applied to twenty colleges because I realized that there are many variables that will influence my decision on where to attend. The more places I applied to the better my chances are of being made an offer that suits my criteria. </p>

<p>Thank you and Good Night :)</p>